Frontiers journal ranking analysis: Human Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 3.209, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is the 1st most cited Psychology journal in the world

This year, 77 journals are listed in the category of Psychology in the 2016 edition of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), of which 2 are open-access (OA). The Neurosciences category included 259 journals overall, and 37 OA journals.

The Impact Factor (IF) is measured each year and reported in the JCR by Clarivate Analytics (formerly known as Thomson Reuters), along with citations and other metrics of journal impact. The IF of a journal is the average number of citations received last year to articles published in the previous two years – and is universally regarded as a metric of journal quality. The total number of citationscaptures how much research is built on the papers published in a journal and is therefore a measure of influence of a journal on a field. As such, the 2016-JCR analysis is based on citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015.

Our analysis shows that the quality, impact and influence of Frontiers journals are steadily growing. With an Impact Factor of 3.209, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is the 1st most cited journal in the category of Psychology, with a total of 4,864 citations in 2016 to 1,516 articles published in 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1). It is also the 8th most cited Neurosciences journal in the world (Figure 2).

In summary, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:

Is the 1st most-cited journal in Psychology, and 8th most cited in Neurosciences, with 4,864 citations.

Ranks at the 78th percentile of Journal Impact Factors in the category of Psychology, and in the 58th percentile in Neurosciences.

Top 10 most cited journals in Psychology

Figure 1. Total number of citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015, for the top 10 most cited open-access journals in Psychology. Bar plot shows Frontiers in Human Neurosciences (in red) ranks 1st most cited over 77 journals indexed. The results are based on the 2016 Journal Citation Reports, released in 2017 by Clarivate Analytics.

Top 10 most cited journals in Neurosciences

Figure 2. Total number of citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015, for the top 10 most cited open-access journals in Neurosciences. Bar plot shows Frontiers in Neuroscience Journal Series (made up of 11 Frontiers in Neuroscience journal titles, in red) ranks 1st most cited of the 259 journals (subscription and open-access) indexed, with Frontiers in Human Neurosciences ranking 8th most cited. Read full Neurosciences journal series analysis here. The results are based on the 2016 Journal Citation Reports, released in 2017 by Clarivate Analytics.

Scientific Excellence at Scale

Frontiers has become one of the largest open-access publishers in the world and is leading many of the technological innovations in Open Science. We engineered our Collaborative Peer Review with a review mandate focused on enhancing article quality by means of rigorous and constructive feedback from expert reviewers, quick and direct interactions between authors, reviewers and the editor. We enable their work with our unique review forum platform, and we introduced transparency and accountability by acknowledging reviewers and editors on the published articles.

With journals listed across 20 academic categories in the 2016-JCR, Frontiers journals rank in the top percentiles of Impact Factors and total citations. This confirms the rapidly growing success and influence of the Frontiers Open Science model, that consistently delivers scientific excellence at scale.

All of this is only possible with a stellar editorial board of researchers. Frontiers congratulates Specialty Chief Editors Hauke R Heekeren and Srikantan S Nagarajan, and the diligent work of the Associate and Review Editors and the Frontiers Journal Management team for this outstanding achievement.